New I-T portal | Unavailability of old returns to hurt home loans, business contracts: Experts

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One of the major glitches of the new I-T portal is unavailability of old I-T returns that might hobble anyone applying for home loans and businessmen applying for contracts, tax experts told Money9.

“Old I-T records are not available in the new portal. This can pose problems for ordinary citizens who might be applying for home loans. Banks and FIs commonly ask consumers for I-T returns of three years,” said Tapas Chakraborty, Partner, Dhar and Basu, a tax consultancy firm.

Missed opportunity

Chakraborty pointed out even bigger problems await businessmen who are applying for tenders and contracts.

“Routinely businessmen have to submit income tax returns of three years. All these contracts have a deadline. Many might face lost opportunities for this glitch in the portal,” added Chakraborty.

“A person applying for home loan might go back after a few days, but those who have dated contracts might face loss in opportunities for no fault of theirs,” added Das.

Old and new

Echoing Chakraborty, another income tax practitioner, Soumyadipta Das said that it would have been wiser for the vendor firm Infosys which designed the portal to keep the old one alive till the migration to the new portal was smoothly achieved.

“If you log in to the old portal, you are automatically directed to the new portal, where a number of glitches confront you,” added Chakraborty.

Half-a-dozen tax experts Money9 spoke to on June 14, a week since the launch of the new portal, said the new portal is riddled with flaws and they had no idea when these would be fixed.

Slow

Manajit Banerjee, another income tax practitioner, also pointed out that the portal has become slow.

“Pages are hanging for a while and all the old data is not available. Moreover, there are a few features that has made it more confusing, especially for elder citizens. One of my senior citizen clients found it extremely difficult to locate where he could get form 26AS, which pertains to TDS,” said Banerjee.

“If we experts face such problems to operate it, just imagine what would a common man face. The authorities should have kept both alive and allow the country time to get used to the new one while minimising the glitches on the portal,” said Chakraborty.

Foreign remittances

Das also pointed out that form 15cb for foreign remittances were not opening through link. “There should be a manual for users which will enable them to operate easily,” remarked Das.

Kumarjit Das, proprietor of law firm BK Dass, even said that he could not even open the portal as of June 13.

Prasanta Mukherjee, who is in his sixties and has been practising I-T law for more than three decades, said that while the earlier portal opened at “the blink of an eye”, the new one is keeping users waiting for a couple of minutes before failing to open.

“It denies access more than it allows access,” said Mukherjee.

There were problems in the faceless proceedings section too. The faceless appeals have been initiated for reducing the personal and subjective element in tax assessments.

Chakraborty pointed out that even this section is not working. “This feature to be available shortly,” is the message that greets you in this section.

FM’s jibe

While the Centre was in discomfort over the plethora of glitches in the much-hyped portal, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had twitted on June 8, “I see in my TL grievances and glitches. Hope Infosys and Nandan Nilekani will not let down our taxpayers in the quality of services being provided. Ease of compliance for the taxpayer should be our priority.”

Soon after Sitharaman’s public display of displeasure, Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani said that the company was working to fix the glitches and he hoped that those would be put right within a few days.

Infy’s response

“The new e-filing portal will ease the filing process and enhance end user experience. Nirmala Sitharaman Ji, we have observed some technical issues on day one, and we are working to resolve them. Infosys regrets these initial glitches and expects the system to stabilise during the week,” Nilekani tweeted.